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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	read_v	scripture_n	see_v	3,134	5	3.6292	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20595	A declaration of the reasons which moued Marcus Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato or Salonas, primate of Dalmatia and Croatia, to depart from the Romish religion and his countrey. Written by himselfe in Latine, and now for the populare vse translated; Marcus Antonius de Dominis, Archiepiscopus Spalatensis, suae profectionis consilium exponit. English	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.; W. S., fl. 1617.	1617 (1617)	STC 6999; ESTC S116248	16,073	35

suspected some thing lurketh in them which our doctrine is not able to confute From the first yeeres wherein I rendered my selfe to be a Clergie man I fostered an in-borne desire to see the vnion of all the Churches of Christ could neuer patiently thinke vpon the division of the Westerne Easterne Churches the South North in matters of faith I desired earnestly to know the causes of so many and so great Schismes and to search if possibly any way could be found out to bind vp again all the Churches of Christ in the true ancient vnion I was also tormented with heauy dolour which I conceiued at the dissentions of Professors of Christian Religion and the coate of Christ so miserably rent asunder which dolour and too great heauinesse did wonderfully afflict mee and yet more and more vexeth me daylie Thereafter now some twenty yeeres agoe I was promoued to the gouernement of the Church and made Bishop of Segnat which thing my Fathers the Jesuits tooke heauily because they knew by experience that I was not ydle not improfitable for their societie but that their account I doe not much regard for I contemne all humane aestimation vnlesse it make some furtherance to diuine obedience they had found me I say profitable for them for in the time of my tryall when I was but young they praeferred mee to a publicke profession of HVMANITIE in the Colleges of VERONA And before I was a Priest they placed mee in the Publicke Chaire for the profession of the MATHEMATICKES at PADVA vvith great concourse of hearers They made mee Professor of RHETORICKE first and then of the LOGICKE and PHILOSOPHIE in the Publicke Schooles of BRESCIA and often on the Festuall dayes would needes haue mee making Sermon in their Churches They enjoyned mee the dispatch both of priuate and weightie Affaires And in all the seruices of their societie they found my diligence Why then should they not haue taken heauily my promouing to a Bishoprick which was vnto me the first occasion to come downe to the earth from the subtill and airie or improfitable disputations of the Schoolmen and to turne my contemplation in wholesome practise of the cure of soules and of the Church And because I did acknowledge the proper taske of a Bishop was to preach the Word I set my selfe to reade Sermons and such Bookes as are appointed for Lent which did soone beget in mee a loathing and detestation for I sawe in them and that easilie a filthie abuse of Scripture while it is throwne to vaine improfitable impertinent yea and a pernicious sense I saw Examples and Miracles propounded either false and fained or at least ridiculous and not worthie of credite I sawe the people miserablie deceiued and the inuentions of auarice and ambition superstitiouslie forced vpon them vnder colour of articles of Faith These thinges I was astonished to consider and therefore I resolued to leaue these troubled Streames and to take my selfe to the Fountaines of the Fathers in reading of whose works I beganne to delyte for Sermons and holy Canons and Church Gouernement From this course now and then some beames of new light did shine vnto me as yet vnwilling and repining for on the one part I did obserue the sayinges of the Fathers in verie manie thinges contrarie to the common Doctrine which I had learned in the Schooles and I did perceiue that they were either passed by in silence by my Masters or not faithfully alledged or not sufficientlie or which is worse sinistrously expounded On the other part I did see and that not without great wondring that the Rule of Church Discipline and Spirituall Gouernement of our time was exceeding farre different from the ancient practise whereby my forenamed suspicions were greatly augmented and I perceiued a farre off that we did not faithfully handle the Doctrine and Affaires of CHRIST and his Church but sluffed our THEOLOGIE rather with the quicke inuentions of humane speculations and Philosophie than with the wholsome wordes of holy Scripture exactly considered and expounded whereof there is a grosse ignorance amongst vs. From a Bishoprick I was aduanced to an Archbishoprick wherby a new and more vrgent occasion grew vnto me to renew my studies and to labour in them more earnestly for whereas the troubles of the Suffragane Bishops of my Prouince but much more the excessiue power of the Court of Rome encroching vpon my Metropolitane Iurisdiction began to injure mee I proponed to my selfe to search out and throughly to knowe the Root and Fountaine of Church degrees Iurisdictions callings offices and dignities and chiefely of the Papall greatnesse A little after the State of VENICE was by the Pope put vnder Interdiction and scoffing Pamphlets sent dayly from Rome ceased not to oppresse vexe and slander all of vs who were Bishops of the SEIGNORIE of VENICE as Beastes Dolts Ignorantes and men of euill Conscience Whereof for the better instructing our lawfull defences and for the better knowledge of the quaestion debated betwixt the Venetians and the Pope new occasions were giuen to mee of a new and more earnest studie The holy ancient Canons the Orthodox Councels the Discipline of the Fathers and the ancient customes of the Church were often and againe turned ouer by me Whereto shall I say more I found aboundantly in these only all that I sought and a great deale more than I sought Then it was easie with opened eyes to obserue that the doctrine of these Reformed Churches which in great numbers Rome maketh enemies to her selfe and which are bitterly reproued and impugned by our THEOLOGS did in little or nothing at all differ from the true and ancient doctrine of the pure Church I did also perceiue that their doctrine both at Rome and among vs is abhorred and repelled rather than lawfully impugned not for that it is indeede Haereticall and false but only because it is contrary to the corrupt sense and manners of the Court of Rome and to her fleshly plottes and inuentions which is nowe turned into a temporall estate I saw also perceiued most clearly that at Rome without any lawfull ground yea by extreame violence innumerable new articles of faith were daily coined forced vpon vs that in such things as not only appertaine nothing to diuine faith but also containe in themselues manifest falsehood Which articles that corrupt Court will neither suffer to be discussed by any nor be brought in a due consultation of the Church but pursueth euen to the death all those who dare whisper against them They haue now for a long time smoothered the sacred Councels and so haue put out the eyes of the Church of CHRIST that nowe vnhappie shee as another Sampson made blinde and depriued of her owne strength captiued and made vyle is able only to groane It was sometimes an article of Faith that the vniuersall Church dispersed throughout the whole worlde is that Catholicke Church of CHRIST whereunto CHRIST himselfe doeth promise his

in much patience in tribulation in necessities in straites in laboures through glorie and shame through infamie and good fame for I seeke not my selfe nor mine owne but those things which are IESVS CHRISTS That rather doeth grieue me if I doe not obviate calumnies it may easily come to passe that in the mindes of the Godly a great fruite of aedification shall bee stayed which they might take of my counsell and that many ignorant of the reasons of my departing in place of aedification shall vnwittingly offende at me by vnjust calumnies which they will heare To these I will open the reasons of my departing and make them manifest to all men that I may profite them That this my change of place is of GOD and not of man neither may I neither ought I to call in question I knowe wee should not easily trust euery Spirit but should trye them if they bee of GOD as we are well admonished by IOHN the beloued Disciple of CHRIST Therefore in these tryalls beside the often accesse to the Father of Lightes which I learued of CHRIST in these ten yeeres before named it is most certaine as GOD and my Conscience beareth me recorde that no mans perswasion of whatsoeuer sort came to my eares in this purpose I had none to stirre me vp none to perswade me I had vse of no mans counsell nor did cōmunicat it to any creature Neither yet let any suspect that I did drawe my reasons on t of the Bookes of Protestants which are contrary to the doctrine of ROME for GOD is my witnesse I did vehemently abhorre those Bookes discharged by ROMANE Inquisition which indeed if any Praelate addicted to the Court of ROME did detest I did it out of measure beeing possessed from my childhood with foolish feares and since now I am not a childe but neare vnto threescore yeeres of age let any who listeth assay whereinto he can perswade me without weightie reasons I did euer sway the inclinations thoughts of my heart after the rules which the Holie Spirit in Sacred Scripture did praescribe to the whole Church by whose direction the holie and reuerende Fathers euer much esteemed by the Catholicke Church did instruct the Faithfull which holie Fathers also beside the inward motions of the Holie Spirit were the onlie and chiefe authors of this my purpose Why then should I suspect this worke to bee of an euill spirit From which suspicion that also maketh me free that before GOD who tryeth the heart and reynes I know that in my deliberation I did neuer direct my minde to humane or worldlie respectes not vnto Ecclesiasticall dignities which might beseeme mine estate for I was alreadie a Bishop and that not of the basest sort but the chiefest in my natiue Prouince to wit The Archbishop of Spalato the Primate of two Kingdomes Dalmatia and Croatia of as great aestimation in our Churches Prouinces I am not ashamed to confesse the trueth as anie other And if the dignities of Rome had beene pleasant to me I had euer an easie accesse to them But the manners of the Court of Rome which I euer disliked made me euer to abhorre it Yet not the lesse in great and publicke affaires the Sea of Rome did vse my labours to the Emperour and Archdukes as is manifest by the Popes Brieues and the Letters of the Emperour and Archdukes which I yet keepe My well-deseruing also at the hand of the State of Venice my natiue Soueraigne did procure vnto me their great fauour whereby I might both hope for and expect the benefite of a better fortune if the desire of greater Grandour had possessed me I looked not to worldlie commodities which I had in that aboundance as might more than suffice a moderate spirit such as I euer had which I doe ascribe to the grace of GOD. In this change of my place I doe gladlie embrace the losse of all my dignities and riches because as I haue said I seeke not mine but the thinges of IESVS CHRIST Therefore neither the counsels of men nor the vndaunted affection nor worldlie necessitie nor euent neither anie miserable accident which vseth to ranuerse men and their estate moued mee to depart but whence it was I will ingeniously declare without faining or dissimulation For the most part from my childhood I was brought vp among the Iesuits in holy study according to the common doctrine of the Schoole-men and the receiued opinions of the Church of Rome for which opinions proper to Rome imprinted and fixed in my mind more by authoritie than by reason with the miserable captiuing of my vnderstanding I was for a long space most resolued to die for I counted it execrable about these opinions to admit the smallest doubt or ambiguitie of mind or thought let be of speaches and being bound vp in this cōmon reuerence of them if at any time any thought had crept in against them or my studies had suggested any doubt I resolued to vse violence against mine owne reason as the custome is in matters of Faith and to turne my minde and thoughts another way rather than I should admit the least doubt against these articles of Faith which I tooke for certaine and were set out to vs by our teachers to bee moste certaine I confesse I did feele continually some sparks of the inward Spirit which neuerthelesse I resisted yet I could neuer freely acquiesc neither free my selfe of a great suspicion which held me in perplexitie after I had made some progresse in the studies of Diuinitie Which suspicion was greatly augmented in mee by so exact so rigorous and intestine businesse of Rome whereby I perceiued they did moste narrowly take heede that no booke written against our doctrine should bee helde or read by any of vs for I supposed that these bookes were justly discharged the common sort lest the people who are destitute of judgement and discretion shold be exposed by reading of them to the danger of drinking in of Haeresie But in that they were altogether discharged Students and men of great learning and well affected to the Catholicke Religion I did euer judge as reason will teach euery man that matter was greatly to bee suspected especially seeing the Court of Rome suffered vs not to haue any vse of these bookes euen after wee had compleet our course in the studie of Diuinitie and taken degrees therein yea and after our promotion to Bisshoprickes This suspicion did yet more increase where I sawe our Masters and Professors in their publicke handling of the controuersies by word or writ claime this authoritie to themselues to bee trusted in all that they sayde that those wordes and sentences which they did repeate were the wordes and sentences of the aduersaries and in the meane time the hearers were discharged vnder the fearefull paine of Excommunication to reade the vvritinges of the Aduersaries In ryding suppressing and destroying vvhereof they make so great businesse as justlie it is to bee